We all know that the first feature of a good and effective logo is that it can immediately grab the viewers’ attention. You can achieve this by mixing colors, fonts and shapes to explain the nature of the business. But there’s another good and effective technique to do, and that is by giving the viewers a little puzzle to solve. Who doesn’t love puzzles or mystery, right? Make a logo design that contains a hidden message behind. Either they carry double meanings or are a clever visual representation of the business’ name. It would boggle the mind of the viewer and would give them an instant satisfaction feeling when they figured it out and will make the logo stick into his head for a long time. Plus, it’s fun and interesting! It’s something people will find worth talking about and sharing.

In this post, we have added really creative and cleverlogo designs made by really talented artists and designers for your inspiration. Some of them are really clever, some are truly mind-blowing, some are quirky and some have “hidden meanings or symbols” contained within them that you might have missed, even if those logos are familiar brand names logos that you have seen many times before There are 76 of them, enjoy!

1. Backspace

Backspace

First off our list of clever logo designs is the logo design of Backspace. The design and the font are just simple but it catches your attention. Why? Because just merely looking at it makes you want to reach the backspace key on your keyboard and correct the typo. (Designer: Joe Prince)

2. Circus of Magazines

Circus of Magazines

Next is the logo of Circus of Magazines, an online marketplace for guess what? Magazines, obviously. Magazine enthusiasts from all around the world gather here to buy, sell and exchange magazines. As you can see in the logo, it shows a combination of an open magazine and a circus tent. Really clever and memorable way to represent the online community and the website. (Designer: Olivier Courbet)

3. Le Tour De France

Le Tour De France

In this handwritten-type logo design of Le Tour De France, you might not notice that there is a hidden cyclist shaped by the letter ‘R’ and ‘U’ and the letter ‘O’ and the giant yellow circle are the bicycles’ wheels. More fun fact, the yellow wheel also suggests the idea of a sun which makes sense because this event runs in the summer.

5. Hershey’s Kisses

Hershey’s Kisses

We all love Hershey’s kisses, right? 🙂 Well, take a look at their logo design because they are included in our list! If in FedEx there’s a hidden arrow, then in Hershey’s Kisses there’s a hidden kiss between letters ‘K’ and ‘I’. You might need to tilt your head slightly to the left to really see it, though.

6. Eight

Eight Logo

Eight Logo Explained

Each letter is made up of a certain part of the number ‘8’. Really original and fresh logo design with variations of an 8 to made word eight. Even the placing of TM is placed in the right place to create an angle and clarity of the design. Take a look at the second image, it will help you visualize more this fantastic design.

7. Missing

Missing

Both of the letter i’s are literally missing.

8. Backword

Backword

This logo is a sample of a word play. See, the word “Backword” is written backwards. And Backword sounds like Backward.

9. Amazon

Amazon

The logo design of Amazon must be one of the most known logos on the web, considering the sheer amount of traffic this site receives on a daily basis. But if you take a look at the logo design, you may say that this is a pretty boring one if not for the strategically placed arrow. The arrow represents the way the Amazon store sells everything from ‘A’ to ‘Z’ which is a very brilliant concept. Also, the arrow represents the smile they can bring to your face once you experience shopping at their online store. Clever, right? (Designer: Anthony Biles)

10. To Beat Or Not To Beat

To Beat Or Not To Beat

The To Beat of Not to Beat logo uses a belt to make the shape of a question mark, posing the question: To Beat or Not to Beat?

11. MyFonts

My Fonts

This logo of MyFonts is composed of a beautiful custom made handwriting type where the word ‘MY’ looks like a hand. This just represent that by using their site you are getting your hands on their fonts. (Designer: Underware)

12. Black Cat

Black Cat

Aside from the background is black for Black Cat’s logo, you can also see two cat’s eyes staring at you formed by the two letter “C’s”. (Designer: Vasvari)

13. Tostitos

Tostitos

This logo design is a fun find! Who knew the logo was where the party’s at? Look closely, the two letter “T’s” look like two people partying as they dip a tortilla chip into the bowl of salsa in the letter ‘I’. Fantastic!

14. New Man

New Man

This irreversible logo design of New Man is one of the first commercially designed so-called ambigram logos. You van rotate the logo 180º and you can still read ‘New Man’. (Designer: Raymond Loewy)

15. Knife

Knife

This simple yet catchy looking logo design is Knife’s. As you can see, the letter ‘F’ looks like a knife with a drop of blood. (Designer: Cleber)

16. Happy Quote

Happy Quotes

The quotation mark in this logo looks like a side view of a happy face. If only this logo design can speak, then that would be really cool! (Designer: Mabu)

17. Mummy

Mummy

Well, this logo design surely conceptualizes the logo name ‘Mummy’. Because the word ‘mummy’ looks like a lying mummy. (Designer: Hemisferiod)

18. Light Bureau

Light Bureau

Though the hidden meaning of this logo design may not be so subtle, it still caught my attention. Look at the letter ‘I’. The circle above it looks like a sun that illuminates the rest of the letters. Brilliant! (Designer: D4design)

19. Golf

Golf

Look at this logo for the golf outing promotions in Nevada, USA. The word ‘Golf’ is formed by golf clubs, a hole and a ball. Simplistic.(Designer: Type08)

20. Orange Cat

Orange Cat

This brightly looking logo design is Orange Cat Design Studio’s. The letters ‘O’ and ‘C’ form a cat. That simple. (Designer: Grabarz)

21. Steps

Steps

The letter ‘E’ forms the first three steps of stairs. (Designer: Jason Sanzone)

35. Egg

36. Coffee Night

37. I Hate You

I Hate You

At first glance, it may look as “I heart You”. But the hidden logo has a different meaning. On the contrary, the heart is twisted to spell out “Hate”.

38. Families/Marriage

Families/Marriage

In the Families logo, the ‘i’, ‘l’, and second ‘i’ are all different sizes, representing the father as the long ‘l’ and the mother as the longest ‘i’ followed by the child. The upper case “R”s in the Marriage logo mirror each other with their ends sticking together, representing the bond of a relationship. (Designer: Herb Lubalin)

39. Goodwill

Goodwill

Take a look at the letter ‘G’ in Goodwill. Does it look familiar? Yes, it is. Because its also the iconic smiling face above just zoomed in and cropped slightly.

40. Spartan Golf Club

Spartan Golf Club

This is one of my favorite and I think it’s really genius. This fine logo makes much more sense after you’ve read the title. I don’t know whether this is a fictional logo to showcase author’s design skills, or maybe Spartan Golf Club really exists out there in the wild. What did you spot first? The centurion helmet, or the golfer making his swing? (Designer: Richard Fontenau)

41. Push The Bottle

Push The Bottle

Oh, that’s clever! Another excellent use of negative space. The hand pushing a button makes the shape of a bottle. Notice how the fingers of the fist create the liquid in the bottle. (Designer:Gustav)

42. Zip

Zip

Letters ‘Z’ and ‘P’ are zipped together by letter ‘I’. Totally rocked and justified the brand name. *thumbs up* (Designer:logomotive)

43. UP

Up

An arrow showing up forms a letter “u” and also has a hidden “p” inside. (Designer:m1sternoname)

44. Threesome

45. Pencil

Pencil

Super plain yet really interesting. The letters ‘i’ and ‘l’ form a pencil. It’s amazing how little had to be added to make a pencil appear (just a triangle!). Some logo designers really have a gift for simple touches that change everything.(Designer:reghardt)

46. Wine Searcher

Wine Searcher

Look! What looks like a pair of binoculars doubles as two bottles of wine at the same time. (Designer:Itsgareth)

47. Twins

48. Sushi

Sushi

Letter “H” looks like chopsticks picking a sushi. (Designer:Type08)

49. Shocked

Shocked

The socket’s expression says it all. (Designer:Fogra)

50. Yoga Australia

Yoga Australia

At first glance, the logo may look like a simple picture of a women’s silhouette in a yoga pose, but if you take a second look at this image, you’ll see how the negative space between her leg, hips and arm looks like Australia.

51.NBC

NBC

There’s a hidden peacock looking to the right representing the company’s motto to look forward, and not back.

52. Mr. Cutts

Mister Cutts

The scissors are transformed to look like a face with glasses and mustache. Very artistic and fancy. I love it! (Designer:Tabitha Kristen)

53. Mosleep

Mosleep

Mosleep is an organization of doctors that deals with people having sleeping disorders. The logo is their intial ‘M’ that was designed to also look like a bed. (Designer:Muamer)

54. Killed

Killed Productions

This is basically just like the impotence logo, the letter “i” is lying as if it was killed. (Designer:Ethereal)

55. Half

Half

The word “Half” is sliced into half. (Designer: wunjo)

56. F*ck!

F*ck

A bit provocative logo against nazism and racism. (Designer:Karl Design)

57. The Milwaukee Brewers

The Milwaukee Brewers logo design sure looks like a baseball glove. But if you take a second look, you can see that the groups’ initials “MB” actually forms the glove. Too bad, they changed their logo. This one’s cool.

58. Iron Duck

Iron Duck

This is actually cute. The hanger doubles as a duck. (Designer:Siah Design)

59. FedEx Express

FedEx

Out of all the list, this one seems to be the most popular. The FedEx logo looks like a plain text based logo but if you take a second look between the E and the x you will see an arrows which represents the speed and accuracy of the FedEx’s business and services. (Designer: Lindon Leader)

60. Mother

Just like the Families logo, this hidden logo shows a mother and child holding hands using the letter “M”.

61. Baskin Robbins

Baskin Robbins

Way back 1953, Baskin Robbins made an innovation in the world of ice cream by offering a total of 31 different flavors. As you can see in their logo design, the number 31 is hidden between the letters ‘B’ and ‘R’. Just a fun fact, why ’31’? Anybody? It’s just to have the customer try a different flavor every day of the month.

62. Formula 1

Formula 1

Empty space in the middle creates a number “1″ for “Formula 1″

63. Elefont

Elefont

Elefont is another logo with a hidden meaning in the negative space. Find the trunk in the lowercase letter e. (Designer:m1sternoname)

64. City Direct

City Direct

Notice how the space around the plane forms the letters ‘C’ and ‘D’. (Tobias) (Designer: Logomotive)

65. Cafeclick

Cafe Click

The coffee steam is made of mouse pointers. Totally nailed internet cafe! (Designer:Leo)

66. Bipolar

Bipolar

Another logo that plays in representational symbols while relating heavily to the brand name is the Bipolar logo. Being a medical disorder that often depicts ambiguous emotions, the logo characterises this with simple shapes that depict a happy and sad face. (Designer: Siah Design)

67. Eighty 20

Eighty 20

Just like Sony Vaio’s logo, the hidden meaning in Eighty20’s logo design may not be really hidden to computer geeks. As you can see above the word “Eighty20”, there are lots of squares. In the first row, when you read the squares in binary they become 1010000 which is equivalent to 80 while the next row reads 0010100 which is equivalent to 20.

68. Sony Vaio

Sony Vaio

One of the best in our list is the Sony Vaio logo design. Its hidden meaning is pretty clever because you can only see it if you understand a bit of how computer works. The Sony Vaio logo symbolizes the integration of analog and digital technology. If you can see on the left side, the letters ‘V’ and ‘A’ forms an analog wave. While on the right side, ‘I’ and ‘O’ represent digits 1 and 0 which are the two digits used in binary computing. By the way, VAIO is an acronym for Video Audio Intelligent Organizer. (Designer: Timothy Hanley)

69. Toblerone

Toblerone

If you look closely in Toblerone’s logo design, you can see that there’s a hidden bear in the snows of Matterhorn. Known as the world-famous Swiss chocolate, Toblerone came from the town of Bern in Switzerland where the Matterhorn mountain is located and the bear is the official symbol of the town. Another fun fact, do you know where the name ‘Toblerone’ came from? Well, its name is a portmanteau (a word made out of two or more words) and is the combination of its creator ‘Tobler’ with word ‘Torrone’, a traditional type of nougat in Italy.

70. Snooty Peacock

Snooty Peacock is a jewelry store. Notice the hidden peacock in the face.

71. Bar Code

72. Lion Bird

73. Brella

At first glance, the word reads brella. But did you see the first letters ‘u’ and ‘m’?

74. Nurd

If you look closely, you’ll notice that the both headlights look like an eyeglass.

75. Nosey

Nosey

Amazing how the word ‘nosey’ is naturally made to a face. Amazing how designers can think of such a smart design.

76. Mr. Couch

This one’s cute. It reminds me of Garfield. 🙂 The couch doubles as a man’s face with mustache.

These types of logos make you smile at the brilliance of both the idea and the execution and have several layers of meaning that can hit you in waves. Some are amazing in their obviousness to all who see them and some find excellence in hidden secrets. I hope these logos collection isn’t just another “list post” but instead is a healthy dose of inspiration that encourages you to add a little thought, uniqueness and wit into your logo creation process. Did you already know the secret of these logos? Let us know in the comment and tell us your favorites. For more clever logo designs, check this out.